Under siege, the community of Westbury has begged the deputy nation police commissioner, Tebello Mosikili, to deploy the army to resolve the issue of violent crime in the area.
This comes as alleged gang violence in the area has resulted in the death of a respected businessman, Ashwin McCabe, who was shot and killed as he was closing his shop on Monday.
Following this murder, community members marched to the Sophiatown police station demanding that police resolve the matter within 72 hours.
On Tuesday, the deputy police commissioner with other leaders of the SAPS visited the angry community to hear their concerns following what looks like a new wave of violence.
Mosikili indicated that her department has requested President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy the army while also engaging other crime prevention strategies to deal with the issues within this community.
She said part of this is the deployment of an anti-gang unit to monitor the situation, which will be followed by the deployment of the army once this is approved at the highest level.
“In Gauteng, we have deployed the army in areas such as Langlaagte. I know you are angry. We are deploying the army but for this purpose we need to follow the right process as only the president can deploy the army and that request to deploy the army in Sophiatown is with the president,” she said.
Their visit coincided with the release of the third-quarter crime statistics for the province which indicated that kidnapping and other contact crimes continue to rise in spite of interventions to curb violence in areas such as Westbury, Diepsloot, Eldorado Park, Noordgesig, Newclare, Riverlea and other crime-infested areas.
Earlier in the day, Gauteng police commissioner Tommy Mthombeni addressed the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on the latest crime figures, which revealed that there was a 3.8% increase in murder cases, with more than 214 of these being women while 55 were children.
Addressing members of the community, Bishop Dalton Adams called on the community to allow the police and other law enforcement agencies to roll out their crime-fighting strategies.
“I think it is important to let them roll out whatever plan they have. But we want also to mention, commissioner, that we have come to ask for the army to be deployed. We want to ask if there is a timeline in terms of gauging and measuring the process that you are going to roll out the plan that you have so that there might be a possibility of the army being deployed once we see that you are making inroads because as a community, we are definitely under siege,” Adams said.
Meanwhile, Ashwin’s mother, Donnie Lesley McCabe, decried the manner in which her son was killed, adding that her son was a law-abiding citizen.
“Ashwin was my only son; he was very obedient and law abiding. I want to tell all the coloured boys, young men, to stop what they are doing. You took my only son, my only son. Oh no, I don’t want to cry,” she said.
The deputy police commissioner assured residents that the assigned investigating team was given 72 hours to crack the case.
The Star